


What You Can't Lock in a Box

by Absolutefandomtrash



Category: Doctor Sleep - Stephen King, The Shining - Stephen King
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Asphyxiation, Blood and Gore, Crying, Dan Torrance has ptsd, Dan is a precious cinnamon roll that needs to be protected, Dreamsharing, F/M, Nightmares, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychic Abilities, Strangulation, Tears, he's a burnt cinnamon roll that's seen too much but he's still a cinnamon roll, protect him and Abra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-05-07 11:49:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19208806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Absolutefandomtrash/pseuds/Absolutefandomtrash
Summary: One night while he's visiting, Dan and Abra accidentally enter each other's dreams. Things go very wrong, and he ends up telling her and her concerned parents about just why he's dreaming about people trying to kill child him





	What You Can't Lock in a Box

**Author's Note:**

> The first Doctor Sleep trailer dropped and I'm so hyped for it and decided to celebrate by writing the fic that I've been brainstorming for a while.
> 
> And yes Danny Torrance is my favorite Stephen King character and no I will not attempt to hide it he's amazing and this is an excuse to write him being soft and vulnerable.

It was a normal visit to the Stone family. Abra had turned fifteen and assured him that she was raising hell in the nearest junkyard and hadn't touched any booze of any kind, Lucy had to remind them to _please use words _, and David was, well, David. Even with all they went through he still kept a healthy awkwardness in their interactions. To be expected. It was a perfectly normal visit.__

Until Daniel John Torrance went to sleep.

_He's wandering the halls of the Overlook. Somewhere downstairs he hears a man destroying things and screaming for him. He has to get away, Tony's calling him, he has to get there-_

_He's in a garden playing croquet like in Heathers which he watched last week at a sleepover and can't tell Mom about it-_

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_"Come here you little shit!"_

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_He misses the person in the hole that changed every five seconds because there were a few people that he isn't happy with at the moment-_

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_"Come out and take your medicine!"_

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_"We're going to be later rock climbing!" Shit, they are. He drops the mallet and runs to the car-_

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_A man in a wolf mask jumps out at him before he can get to the next flight of stairs-_

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_"Hey, are you okay?" Lucy asks before he can get in the car-_

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_He opens his mouth to tell the wolf to go away, that he's just a false face, but nothing comes out-_

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_"Dan?" Abra and her mom ask at the same time-_

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_"I'm going to get you!"_

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_"Dan?" Just Abra. Her face is white and she's looking at something behind him_

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_"And I'll huff and I'll puff-"_

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_"Dan, what the fuck is that?!"_

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_His voice comes back and he yells, "They can't hurt you, just follow me!" Then he grabs her hand and runs through the twisting hallway._

_She grips his hand tightly until they run to his room, where she lets go and stares at him. "What was that? Who was that? Why was he- he?" She's near hyperventilating. Dan grips her shoulders._

_"Abra, look at me." It takes a few seconds, but she locks eyes with him and maintains it. "We're both dreaming. I think they might have bled into each other."_

_"So we just need to wake up?" Her voice is small, scared, but at least she's thinking clearly._

_"I think so. Or at least get out of each other's heads. Which will probably wake us up, so either way we'll be out."_

_The banging is now above them, always distant. Abra looks up, then at him. Her face is set, and she firmly tells him, "Get out."_

_He feels the push, feels himself moving out of his head and into his body but something's wrong, she hasn't moved from the scenery, she's yelling for him to come back, to get her out, but he's moving too fast to do anything-_

Dan woke up with a gasp. The first thing he noticed was that he was absolutely drenched in sweat.

The second thing he noticed was David and Lucy's panicked voices among Abra's yelling.

Shit.

David was shaking her- obviously the attempts to be gentle failed enough times for him to grip her _that _tightly- and Lucy's knuckles were white against her daughter's hand. They both were trying their best, but he knew what was wrong. He moved next to them. They didn't even look at him until he said, "I know what's going on. Let me help." David released his daughter as if his hands were clamped to her and needed prying off, but neither of them budged; Dan found a place on the bed and stared down at his niece.__

Covered in sweat, eyes rolled back, thrashing against her parents, Abra was obviously deep in whatever trance the Shining put her in. She alternated between screaming and mumbling what almost could have been distinguishable words. He held her face in his hands and concentrated on going to wherever she was, going back to his dream in the Overlook, finding her-

_She was backed into a wall in the Presidential Suite, staring at the blood on everything and the bodies that smiled and waved at her and at the mirror on the wall that said REDRUM. When Dan moved in front of her, she jumped with a yelp before hugging him._

_"That thing you let loose on the mountain-" she almost-sobbed into his shoulder. "It-it-he was here, he chased me around, and there was a woman passed out on a bed with a bloody knife, there's a man in the hall bleeding, there were all sorts of creatures in the ballroom with that clock that showed two people sixty-nining who just laughed when I saw that-" she pointed to REDRUM on the mirror- "before going after me, that wolf guy wouldn't let me go up the stairs-"_

"Redrum," Abra croaked. "Redrum redrum redrum-"

_"It's not real, none of it is," he assured her, gripping the back of her head. "Just tell it that. Tell it it's just a false face it wears to keep us in."_

_"Why can't I get out?"_

_"I don't know. But we'll find a way out. For now, just think of leaving and see if it works."_

Abra's breathing steadied a little bit more, but she still trembled violently. Lucy had grabbed one of her hands again.

_They had to run again- it's always running; he never stopped running from everything in that damned hotel even years after it burned to the ground- and end up on the second floor. The hallway seems to warp, to shrink, to narrow their focus on one specific room with a passkey already in the door. They knew better than to just walk in, but in his dream the hallway led back to the same room no matter what direction they ran. Abra moved closer to the room and peered at the door number. ___

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"It's like Blackbeard," she mumbled. David looked at Dan inquisitively.

"How does she know about Blackbeard?"

"She doesn't," he replied through gritted teeth. "I do, however."

_"What's so special about 217?" ___

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_"A woman killed herself in there and tried to kill me when I came in here. This isn't even a last resort." As if on cue, scratching came out from behind it. Dan backed away from it, but Abra was rooted to the spot. ___

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_The door opened. ___

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Dan opened his eyes and stared at his niece. She stopped shaking and went stock still. All three adults held their breath and hoped- a foolish hope, but still one they clung to- that it was over.

Abra's eyes opened and fixed on him with a gaze that was simultaneously completely blank and fulled with fury.

_"Mommy it was her!" _she screamed as she lunged for his throat.__

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The force of the attack was enough to knock him to the ground, as well as knock the wind out of his lungs. He was vaguely aware of David and Lucy yelling at their daughter and attempting to drag her away; they were more background noise than anything. All he could think of was the cold- when did her hands become cold?- hands choking him, the burning in his lungs as he gasped for air, his weak grip on her wrists doing nothing. He could easily throw her off of him, could loosen her hold; knowing did nothing for him. He vaguely remembered yelling that to his mother, and he most definitely remembered the look in Mrs. Massey's eyes as her hands wrapped around his throat. That was the same look in Abra's eyes. He just gripped her wrists and gasped and focused all of his remaining energy in pulling her away from Mrs. Massey, getting her out of the room get her out get her out get her out get _her out get her out GET HER OUT ___

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The hands released him, and he gasped air into his burning lungs. He rolled over as he coughed and sputtered and rubbed his throat. Abra was crying. Her parents were murmuring comforting nothings and probably holding her in their arms and rubbing her hair much like Wendy did that night. Dan just stared at the carpet numbly. It was a dream, it was over, he wasn't back in that room, all that he knew. But none of that stopped him from wanting to go inside himself and not come out again, keep his mouth shut and not use it, just stay where he was, not look at anyone, not go back to the room with Abra and her parent who would want to talk and pull him back when he was fine where he was in between the Overlook and where they were because it was just him and the carpet and his thoughts and he could stay there and not talk and not-

_Dan. ___

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Abra.

He kept his eyes on the carpet.

_Dan, please. Give me something to work with. ___

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_No talking. Don't make me talk Abra please don't make me t- ___

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_You'll have to eventually. Mom and Dad are worried sick about you. I'm worried about you. ___

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_Not now. Not yet. ___

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_Not yet. ___

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"Just give us something," Abra whispered from next to him. When did that happen? She must've done that after they calmed her down. How long had that taken? He didn't know. He could feel David and Lucy hovering close- not too close- and Abra's hand on his shoulder. He reached up- slowly, slow and shaky- and put his hand on hers. She squeezed it.

"Can you stand up?" Lucy asked. "We should probably discuss this weirdness in the living room, where it won't be crowded on a bed."

"And it's much closer to the kitchen," David added.

Dan slowly stood up and leaned against his half-sister. The four made their way over to the living room. David kept moving until he got to the kitchen; the sounds of mugs and cabinets shortly followed.

_Dad makes hot chocolate sometimes when I'm upset. ___

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_That's nice of him. ___

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"I know you two can talk in your heads, but could someone actually say what you're talking about?" Abra made an embarrassed noise.

"I told him about hot chocolate."

"I see."

"Dan, was that where the Shape came from?" He nodded. He didn't need words for that.

"What Shape?"

_My dad under the hotel's influence. ___

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"There were ghost things involved with his dad."

"Ghost things?"

_Dan you're gonna have to talk I can't do this if you can't tell me what's happening and we all want to hear it from you. ___

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_Please don't make me. ___

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"Can you at least start somewhere that's easier to talk?"

Dan finally spoke out loud. "You won't like any of it."

**Author's Note:**

> I know I said in the summary that he tells them what happened, but I wanted to end it before he actually gets to the telling; the plan was more focused on the dream merge than anything.


End file.
